Invasive Species Giant Japanese Hornet Arival

Last week I saw a huge hornet wasp thing. No idea what it was. By the time I got my camera it was gone.

Lately I have green cricket, gnats (whatever they are) all over my house, they fly in , then hop around. They crawl like a spider, have wings &
feelers They keep dropping onto me. It's their dropping thing that drives me crazy, they seem to like hanging out on my crown molding, near the
ceiling, preferring a sloped surface I guess. I go to bed and there's one above my bed. Now I can't go to bed! I think it will drop on me! I just
killed 5 of them. In the morning I get up and there's a bunch on the floor. I'm outside smoking right now and there's 8 on my window frame. It's the
hot weather. They seem to be from an arid region. Started two years ago, last year it was hot and we had grasshoppers. I think they're related.

Each year I get a new species of insect we never had before. I'm on the BC south coast. When I lived in the interior of BC , grasshoppers were common.

In other insect news I've been seeing big round all black bees that have one yellow stripe. I have a lot of flowers so I will see them in a flower.

Yeah I spend a lot of time outside even when it's -5 below. Every once in a while I see something new. I watch the birds insects and animal life. I'm
2 blocks north of Detroit and last fall I had a turkey in my yard. No one would have believed me if I didn't get a picture of it. I didn't have time
to get a picture of this wasp. It was up close and slow moving so I got a good look at it. The noise it's wings made were incredible and loud for a
bug. I was about to scream and run from it.

a reply to: wantsome
Interesting about the sound it made. A few years ago I giant bee was in my kitchen. It was so loud I thought my pipes burst and water was rushing out.
Usually you know there's a bee in the house, but this was so loud I didn't think 'bee'. It was hard to kill. Biggest one I've ever seen or heard.

It's like insects are migrating north. I'm seeing so many new species and like you I'm out there all the time noticing. I've seen some really weird
ones. Or I'll see clusters of some that thankfully don't linger.

A few years ago I had erratic flying moths or maybe they were flying beetles. They made a clanking sound when they flew into a window. They dive
bombed your head and just flew so erratic you feared going into a room with one in. I managed to swat a few and they were hard to swat, almost had a
hard shell on them, so maybe they were beetles, but this weird blood came out that was an opaque greenish tint creamy liquid. These flying things were
here two summers in a row. Now it's these green jumping things I hate!

originally posted by: wantsome
I should wouldn't want to get stung by one.

No. You wouldn't. A couple of people die every year from these things in Korea. They used to nest near my mother-in-law's temple, and they weren't
all that aggressive towards people. I remember thinking that if you looked right at them, they'd start flying around defensively.

Here's a funny. I woke up this morning to another member's bad dream about black wasps. It was a BAD dream. On the plus side ... I get to make some
early a.m. ATS posts.

I remember when I was younger we had a swarm of these bounce off the aluminum siding of our house in North Jersey. Several even got stuck on the bug
zapper and fried for minutes. If I recall correctly they were about 2" long.

I've seen those in Western Kentucky and here at my house in Central Illinois. Didn't really know what they were till now. I've seen them off and on
for years in Ky, but just in the last 2 - 3 years here. Being an avid gardener and having fruit tress and other edible plants around the yard, along
with keeping logs around to cut in to lumber, [ some hang out in woodpiles ] I usually keep a pretty close eye on bugs and I've seen a few new ones
around in the last several years.

I've seen these here in NC. In fact one of the local ag guys came out and took down the nest. It looked like a regular hornets nest but way smaller.
He told me that they hunt in very small numbers, but are EXTREMELY aggressive. This was several years ago before I had a smart phone to take pics
with.

So what are people seeing when they think one of these monster killer hornets is on the loose? There are two main suspects found in the Eastern US
that are often confused for Asian giant hornets. The first is actually a close relative, the European hornet (Vespa crabro L.; see images below). This
species was introduced from Europe/Asia into the US sometime in the 1800s and first recorded in NY. It has since spread across much of the eastern
half of the US. These wasps tend to nest in tree cavities and prefer to be away from humans, but sometimes are found in other situations, even in
attics or walls of homes. They can be aggressive and have painful stings, but are not usually an issue to homeowners.

Another candidate, and a wasp that is even larger than any hornet we have here, is the Eastern cicada killer (Sphecius speciosus (Drury)). These wasps
are distantly related to hornets. They are in fact a type of solitary hunting wasp in the family Crabronidae (formerly a part of Sphecidae, which
contains familiar wasps like mud daubers). As their name implies, cicada killer wasps hunt cicadas. In mid-summer, males guard plots of ground
suitable for tunnels and may "attack" any intruder, especially other males. However, they cannot sting. It's the females that find this prey and
paralyze it, not for her own food but for her young (larvae) to consume. Once a female has paralyzed her cicada, she buries it in the ground and lays
an egg that will hatch into a larva that will consume the prey. Although they have an impressive stinger and have venom, they are not aggressive and
prefer to avoid conflict - after all there is no one to do the work if they die! If you can get them to sting (which would take a lot) they apparently
cause very mild pain, especially for their size.

These things are deadly to humans even if you arent allergic. Its liek getting stung by a scorpion with wings. And the skin will necrosize as well
and have to be cut away. I fyou run into a nest of them... Run in a zig zag motion to the closest water you can find. If not you are pretty well
scrwed. these things are extremely territorial.

Some wasp are Motion activated(they see motion and want to chase it) red wasp are especially bad about this. And Im sorry i know people say they are
dumb insects but I swear they have genetic memory of people who have killed their relatives. every year i have to go out with long sleeve shirts and
hats that cover my head and neck to avoid getting stung or bit.

I hope I'm wrong because if these things are here they are going to cause some serious problems which I'm sure we'll pay for somehow. After watching
the video lucid provided I never knew how truly destructive they could be. Just like the jumping carp and emerald ash borer. As a hardcore fisherman I
dread the day the jumping carp take over the great lakes. The emerald ash borer came from China. I lost 3 ash trees in my yard because of it. I might
be mistaken but the ash borer came from Asia and hit here first. I have a feeling they won't be the last invasive species we see. The great lakes are
adding a new invasive species every six months from the shipping industry.

I agree. Invasive species are the worst, but at the moment it looks like these guys haven't invaded just yet. Chances are you just saw one of the two
guys I posted about. Though if you continue seeing them, contact a professional wildlife guy so he can try to capture one and document it.

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